Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has been treated as a victory for the president’s bellicose approach to foreign policy. Some House Republicans even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But if we know anything from dealing with the North Koreans in the past, it’s not to expect much.

On Wednesday, the regime threatened to call off the June 12 meeting in Singapore if the United States insists on “trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment.” This apparently is a reference to the administration’s demand that North Korea agree to “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.”

This issue is at the heart of the disagreement between the two governments. National Security Adviser John Bolton said North Korea should follow the example of Libya, which gave up its nuclear program. But Libya is the perfect illustration of why Pyongyang wants the bomb. Without it, dictator Moammar Gadhafi found his forces under attack by the U.S. and its NATO allies, and both his regime and he were soon eliminated.

Kim, it’s reasonable to assume, is not going to give up his entire nuclear arsenal, which the regime has spent decades and endured great economic sacrifice to obtain. The best we can reasonably hope for is that he will relinquish most of his nuclear weapons, dismantle the facilities needed to make them and stop conducting missile tests.

No U.S. trade, aid or security guarantee is likely to persuade him to do more — if only because it would be far easier for us to renege on our promises than for him to regain nukes he has surrendered.

Since the summit meeting was first announced, hopes have been high that North Korea would utterly capitulate. Kim may decide to go ahead with the summit regardless. That, however, wouldn’t mean he’ll accept what the administration demands.

If Trump is willing to settle for something short of complete denuclearization, he may be able to achieve a valuable agreement. But if he demands everything, he’s likely to get nothing.